Godmen of
Pre-Christian
History
Caution: This information may rock your world and challenge your belief systems. Fundamentalists may want to skip this editorial altogether.
By: David Deschesne
Editor/Publisher, Fort Fairfield Journal
August 16, 2017
The story of Jesus is one of a man born of divine lineage who came to the earthly realm to offer salvation for sinning humankind. According to the story, He was born of a virgin, crucified, died, buried and resurrected wherein He ascended to Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Heavenly Father. This story was composed nearly 2,000 years ago but it is not unique in the pantheon of mythical gods that preceded Christ—some by thousands of years.
While Jesus continually referred to our Heavenly Father as an entity discreet and separate from himself church tradition ascribed divine Godhead status to him, anyway. So, what else has church tradition done to the Jesus story?
Most of the people of antiquity who compiled religious stories and myths of their respective gods understood them to be myths, or allegories, intended to teach spiritual truths. When the Christian story was being developed, many Gnostic Christians also understood it to be mythical as well. According to Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, “If this was so, then the Jesus story was not a biography at all but a consciously crafted vehicle for encoded spiritual teachings created by Jewish Gnostics...Perhaps those uninitiated into the Inner Mysteries had mistakenly come to regard the Jesus myth as historical fact and in this way Literalist Christianity had been created.”1
The Christian story appears to have borrowed themes from previous godman myths and began to be taken literally as a historical figure acting within historical events some time after it was written by anonymous authors (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are not the names of the authors of those books, it’s believed they were added as titles by church leaders decades after they were written).
It’s at least interesting to note that other gods before Christ also shared many aspects of the Christian story wherein they were born of divine status, suffered, died, were buried and ultimately resurrected. Some of these gods were: Osiris, Dionysus, Attis, Adonis, Bacchus, Mithras, and Krishna. Nope, Christians probably never learned these gods’ names in Sunday School but they have learned many aspects of their stories without knowing it. While the stories of each god do not exactly parallel each other, or the Christian narrative, they all do seem to share a common theme and this is what I respectfully present here for your consideration.
Osiris
(Ancient Egypt)
Osiris was the great-grandson of Atum—a supreme god worshipped at Heliopolis. The myth of Osiris dates back to pyramid texts written 4,500 years ago.2 At 2,500 years before Christ, this makes Osiris one of the oldest godman stories.
Osiris was known as “King of Kings,” “Lord of Lords,” “God of Gods” and was considered the god who made men and women to be born again.3
The myth goes that Osiris was a beneficiate god-king who taught society the art of agriculture and civilization. He was killed by his brother, Seth in a fit of jealous rage (similar in form to the Cain/Abel story in Genesis). Osiris was subsequently brought back to life by the magical powers of his sister/wife, Isis long enough for her to conceive a son by him. She named their son, Horus. Horus subsequently avenged his father’s death by reclaiming the kingdom from Seth.4
According to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Osiris reigns in the Dwat, or underworld. This is not “hell” in today’s vernacular, rather it is simply a place where the dead go to be judged before being allowed into Nut (Heaven) or reborn on Ta (Earth). For example, the sun sets in the west and the ancients believed it died every night, went into the Dwat and was allowed by Osiris to be born again in the East the following day.
Osiris was believed to sit on his throne in the Hall of Judgment in the Dwat, granting entry to the afterlife. Through him alone immortality would be achieved.5
Dionysus
(Ancient Greece)
Dionysus is the ancient god of wine and vegetation. He was the son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Semele and was generally represented crowned with vine leaves.6
According to the myth, which dates back at least 700 years before Christ, Semele died in her seventh month of pregnancy and Zeus took the fetus, Dionysus and placed him in his thigh, carrying him to term to the ninth month.7
“At Eleusis, the place of his ‘Advent,’ Dionysus appeared as a newborn Holy Child laid in a winnowing-basket. This sacred object, his cradle, was carried in his processions by a special functionary called a liknophoros, cradle-bearer. The liknon was the original form of the ‘manger’ in which the infant Jesus was laid. All grain-gods, whose flesh was eaten in the form of bread, appeared as newborn babes in a vessel intended for seed corn.”8
The Mysteries of Dionysus were celebrated at Eleusis for 1,100 years before its temple was destroyed by Christian monks in 396 A.D.9
Ancient Greek playwright, Euripides (480 BC—406BC) told the story of Dionysus, also known as Bacchus in Italy, in his Greek tragedy, The Bacchae, written around 350 years before Christ, where Dionysus was the central character. “In this play, Dionysus explains that he has veiled his ‘Godhead in a mortal shape’ in order to make it ‘manifest to mortal men.’ He tells his disciples, ‘That is why I have changed my immortal form and taken the likeness of man.’ Like Jesus, in many of his myths the Pagan godman is born of a mortal virgin mother.”10
“Having compelled all the world to recognize his divinity, he descended to the underworld to bring up his mother. Like most deities connected with vegetation, Dionysus, at least in Thrace, died and rose again.11
In the Mysteries of Dionysus, a large bearded mask representing the godman was hung on a wooden pole. Like Jesus, who at his crucifixion was given a crown of thorns, Dionysus was given a crown of ivy.12
Attis
(Asia Minor)
Attis originated in Phrygia (modern day Turkey) and was worshipped in Rome as early as 204 BC. He was born of a virgin mother named Nana (some versions her name is Cybele). He was miraculously conceived by his mother eating a pomegranate. He grew up to become a sacrificial savior who was slain to save mankind. His body was eaten by his worshippers in the form of bread. When he resurrected he was known as “The Most High God.” When he died, he rose again three days later on the vernal equinox (first day of Spring).13
Attis was the Phrygian god of vegetation. In the Mysteries of Attis, the Criobolium was performed where a ram was ritually sacrificed.14
He was considered by Lydians as the sun-god and stood at the side of the Supreme God, Medeus.15
Of the several variations of the myths, Attis emasculated himself, spilling his holy blood to bring new vegetation to earth.
In his self-mutilation, death and resurrection he represents the fruits of the earth, which die in winter and rise again in spring.16
Followers of Attis worshipped him in the Megalensia festival during March 24-27 by hanging an effigy of him crucified on a pine tree. They then engaged in self-emasculation and licentious carnivals during the three day event.17 The resurrection of the god was hailed by his disciples as a promise that they too would issue triumphantly from the corruption of the grave.
In recognizing the death and resurrection of Attis in early spring, the Megalensia loosely parallels the Christian celebration of Easter.
Adonis
(Syria)
According to the myth, Adonis, which is a Greek form of the Jewish name of the Lord—Adonai, was born in Bethlehem in the same sacred cave that Christians later claimed as the birthplace of Jesus. He was born of a virgin mother, Myrrha.18
Like his Phrygian counterpart, Attis, Adonis died at Easter time, spilling blood from being killed by a wild boar and using that blood to bring forth new vegetation.
Adonis worship was well established in Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus and Greece in the 5th century BC, around 500 years before Christ. His worshippers believed that every year Adonis was killed by the boar on the mountain and went to the underworld; every year his goddess-lover left this earth in search of him. Every year the women of western Asia and Greece mourned the death of Adonis, cast his image into the sea along with the little Gardens of Adonis, sang the beautiful hymn in hope for his return, and seven days later rejoiced for his reappearance on the face of the earth when the red anemone bloomed.19
Adonis died and rose regularly like all gods of vegetation and fertility. He was also identified with the sun that died and rose again in heaven.18
Bacchus
(Italy)
Roman name for the Greek god, Dionysus. He was worshipped as the wine god wherever wine grapes were grown throughout the Roman empire.
Mithras
(Persia)
Mithras was a Persian deity of Zoroastrian origin. Mithras was a hero of military soldiers around 200 BC and was adopted into the Roman pantheon around 400 BC—100 BC. Mithraism coexisted alongside Christianity for several hundred years after Christ, at which point many of its traditions were assimilated into the then new Christian religion and the ancient rites of Mithraism began to die off.
The magi, or “wise men” of the Bible were of Zoroastrian origin, coming from Persia in the East, and were likely familiar with the religion and story of Mithras.
According to Zoroastrian tradition, Mithras was born on December 25 to the virgin mother Goddess Anahita.20
Initiates into the religion of Mithras were baptized in water,21 similar to the Christian practice developed over 300 years later. Initiates had their heads branded with a Sun Cross on their forehead similar to the cross of ashes of the Christian Ash Wednesday.22
Christianity and Mithraism both celebrated the birth of their lord on December 25. “They both preached a categorical system of ethics, regarded asceticism as meritorious, and counted among their principle virtues abstinence and continence, renunciation and self-control. Their conceptions of the world and of the destiny of man were similar. They both admitted the existence of a Heaven inhabited by beatified ones, situate in the upper regions, and of a Hell peopled by demons, situate in the bowels of the earth. They both place a Flood at the beginning of history; they both assigned as the source of their traditions a primitive revelation; they both, finally, believed in the immortality of the soul, in a last judgment, and in a resurrection of the dead, consequent upon a final conflagration of the universe.”23
The Vatican in Rome is built upon the ruins of a former Mithraic cave-temple which was seized by Christians in 376 AD.24
Krishna
(India)
Krishna (Krsna) is the divine son of the Supreme God, Visnu in human form.25 He is found in the 4,000 year old Hindu religion. Krishna has all of the powers of Visnu. Visnu had to incarnate himself in Krsna in order to save humanity from the goddess Kali, the all-annihilating goddess of death, destruction and human misery.26 Krsna preaches his God’s gospel and realizing it in works for man’s salvation.27 Krsna is the son of the Virgin mother, Devanaguy (Devaki), one formed by God, or rather by the manifested Deity, Vishnu.28
Conclusion
The similarities between the stories of all pre-Christian godmen and the Christian narrative are certainly intriguing. Apologists of the early church, such as Justin Martyr and Tertullian claim all the other religious stories are works of the devil, concocted before Christ was born in order to mislead the faithful. While that is one possibility, one cannot discount the possibility that the latest narrative—Christian—borrowed from all the other previous stories. Finally, it could all be just a big coincidence. My job here was to present the information and let you, the reader, decide for yourself.
Notes
1.) The Jesus Mysteries, ©1999 Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, p. 9
2.) ibid, p. 22.
3.) Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, ©1983 Barbara Walker, p. 749
4.) The Way to Eternity: Egyptian Myth, ©1997 Duncan Baird Publishers, pp. 24, 39, 58, 102.
5.) op cit.
6.) Lincoln Library of Essential Information, ©1965 Frontier Press, p. 326.
7.) Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend, ©1972 Harper & Row, p. 314.
8.) Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets, p. 238.
9.) The Jesus Mysteries, p. 29
10.) ibid, p. 29
11.) Encyclopedia Britannica, 1958 ed., Vol. 7, p. 398
12.) The Jesus Mysteries, p. 51
13.) Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets, p. 77
14. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1958 ed., Vol. 6, p. 721
15.) ibid, Vol. 14, p. 516
16.) ibid, Vol. 2, p. 662
17.) Funk & Wagnalls, p. 90
18.) Women’s Encyclopedia, p. 10
19.) Funk & Wagnalls, p. 13
20.) The Mysteries of Mithras, The Pagan Belief that Shaped the Christian World, ©2005 Dr. Payam Nabarz, Ph. D., p. 19
21.) ibid, p. 30
22.) ibid, p. 35
23.) The Mysteries of Mithra, ©1903 Franz Cumont, p. 191
24.) Women’s Encyclopedia, p. 665
25.) Bhagavad-Gītā: As it is, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, ©1972 Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, p. 169. see also, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1958 ed. Vol 2., p. 792.
26.) Isis Unveiled Vol. 2, 1877 Helena Blavatsky, 2008 Forgotten Books version, p. 274
27. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1958 ed Vol. 13, p. 503
28.) Isis Unveiled Vol 2., p.273
